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84 people found this review helpful
9 people found this review funny
Not Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 2.3 hrs on record
Posted: 22 Oct, 2015 @ 2:23pm

Early Access Review
Note: This review is being written after my 2hr play session on the first day the game was launched on Early Access. This is not a future review of what the game could be, it is a review of the game as it stands in Early Access.


The good
- The world and presentation was great. Art, sound, noises, all fantastic and add to the overall mood.
- Multiplayer works, which is not always the case. No clue if it was cross-platform as I am not even sure what other platforms are supported.
- No tutorial. Dropped in to an unknown world not knowing how to do things makes things get real, real fast. Added to the horror aspect of the game.
- Perspective. Sat nav view of me and the rotating map is something I have never seen done before.


The bad
- No tutorial. The other side of this beast, no clue I had filters or could access a map. Still not even sure what the filters were for.
- Lack of variety in gameplay. The gameplay loop is run to an area, pickup something, shoot monsters/bugs. Rinse and repeat.
- Long open areas between waypoints. There is nothing to do between waypoints execpt run away from monsters.
- Noct monsters. There isn't a point to engage with them if they aren't attacking me or if they aren't surrounding a waypoint.


The Ugly
- Crashes. After two hours I had crashed the game three times. If I can't play your game I can't help you.
- Controller support not listed on the Steam Store page. I honestly almost didn't by this twin stick shooter because it didn't list it on the store page. When I went into the controls I noticed it mentioned X360 controller mapping.
- After about 30-45 minutes I had seen everything the game has had to offer. Plain in simple after two hours of repeating the same content 3 times, I have no drive to return to the game.


Bottom line: It feels like it needs 6 more months of work in-oder for me to be able to sell it to a friend for multiplayer. There just isn't a enough meat on the bone at this stage for it to be fun and engaging gameplay.
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13 Comments
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bachewie 23 Oct, 2015 @ 12:24pm 
Once we are there providing the feedback that is aligned with your development roadmap, make it an engaging converstation. Not once during this conversation has anyone asked for deeper thought or coversation on any of the improvement points. E.g. There are open areas with nothing to do....do you feel additional waypoints should be closer? do you believe engaging with more monsters or more areas to explore and loot would solve this? If you truly entered Early Access as "This will allow us to continue our community-led drive to expand the content and narrative aspects of Noct. We want to make the game that you the community, and us, the developers want to play! :)" ...then take the right steps and engage in the conversations to support this message.
bachewie 23 Oct, 2015 @ 12:24pm 
I'll toss out food for thought and take it for as you want. Lead the horse to water, don't assume it will find the right water pool. I've have no clue what the development team is working on thus I do know what to report on to ensure my time is used wisely. If you want waypoint information put it on the build notes for the new build stating it is an 'area open for feedback' or start a seperate discussion thread.
moat 23 Oct, 2015 @ 11:05am 
RE: tutorial - I've brought up a few things to c3sk's attention, things like telling the player how to access the map from the first message from the drone operator, explaining melee, etc. They're fairly easy to add but there just wasn't enough time to get them in there by the 22nd. They should be in there by final release.

RE: waypoints - We're looking into adding more stuff to do along the way between waypoints. We spent most of our development on things like core gameplay and better AI, user interfaces, controls and networking, and that took a lot of time out of the content generation.

C3SK has to do pretty much all the mapping and networking stuff himself while I handle AI, user interface and controls and anything else that we suddenly need. But since things were in a rather stable and good state (for single player) now we have some time to work on the core content of the game.
moat 23 Oct, 2015 @ 11:05am 
We also want to add some game loops and things to do outside of the story content but we tend to add things one at a time, test them like crazy until we're absolutely certain that they fit well with what is already there, see how people respond and make the necessary adjustments and then add something else afterwards.

But all the same, DO report where we need more waypoints and spawn points so you don't have to walk far after deaths. We really want NOCT to have good "quality-of-life" in it because we want it to be the type of game that you play for hours on end.

RE: Controller support - At present it only supports the XBox 360 controller on the PC. I'm adding in support for generic controllers as well, in case players have a different brand of controller or are not on a PC. This is currently my top priority task.
Shiro___ 23 Oct, 2015 @ 10:49am 
I understand the concern and appreciate you're willing to discuss the game. And indeed, at the time the "story" part of the game ends really fast. Surviving is basically the main goal of the game, and I can see how it can get dull if you end up getting the same loot. I need to talk about it to C3SK, game currently has few guns and quirks.

I think I'm going to try and get him or Mark to implement some sort of building mode where you would create your own base. That was the Nocturnal could raid it, forcing you to defend it, feel like you're protecting the last shiver of humanity.
bachewie 23 Oct, 2015 @ 10:46am 
Finally, I didn't say I disliked the game as you mentioned. I said it needed 6 more months of development before I would be able to convince a friend to pick it up and play with me. My 'Not Recommending' this game is purely based on the game being in Early Access as in I do not recommend buying this game as it released in Early Access. As you state there is a lot coming down the road, but you don't get to simply write things of under the stipulation of 'its Early Access'. In order for Early Access to get its face out of the mud it has to have a bar set for quality and content, and I don't believe Noct release at or above that bar.
bachewie 23 Oct, 2015 @ 10:46am 
Now going back to my opening statement, how can I focus on specific elements of the game and feel like I am making an impact with so many things left unaddressed. There isn't a clear focus from the development team where the community should be assisting and there isn't a dev roadmap of where the game is going. If you want to build a strong community the community must feel empowered with knowledge and be able to make an impact or at least be heard. This led me to my closing statement of 'there isn't enough meat on the bone' as it stands now there is nothing for me to be a community member around.

To be conitunued...
Shiro___ 23 Oct, 2015 @ 10:46am 
More like thank YOU for playing Noct and providing feedback =)
bachewie 23 Oct, 2015 @ 10:46am 
Also this game was clearly designed as a multiplayer experience that you can also play by yourself, since anyone can join you if you have an Open NAT type. There aren't any features in the game to support the multiplayer to make it fun in engaging for friends to play together. It took forever to find anyone on the map as you had to wait for them to be shooting creatures in-order to locate them.

To be continued...
bachewie 23 Oct, 2015 @ 10:46am 
As a player and now community member of Noct, I look at Early Access as point in game development where I can influence various game mechanics and features of the game....well and let's face it write some bugs. This what I am expecting for my investment of $9. When a game comes out and it has core problems such a twin stick shooter, which by design is run n' gun' action packed gameplay, but fails to deliver on the action I start to question why this is even in Early Access at the moment. On the flipside I can accept Noct is trying something different, which is great and which drew me into this game. But this different way of handling a twin-stick shooter doesn't have any supporting gameplay elements at the moment and as I mentioned can be experienced in 30-45 minutes.

To be continued...